Formation of carbon nanotube-containing devices

Abstract

A method of fabricating a carbon nanotube based device, including forming a trench having a bottom surface and sidewalls on a substrate, selectively depositing a bifunctional compound having two reactive moieties in the trench, wherein a first of the two reactive moieties selectively binds to the bottom surface, converting a second of the two reactive moieties to a diazonium salt; and reacting the diazonium salt with a dispersion of carbon nanotubes to form a carbon nanotube layer bound to the bottom surface of the trench.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A carbon nanotube based device, comprising:
 a substrate; 
 an yttrram oxide (Y 2 O 3 ) layer on the substrate; 
 a plurality of germanium oxide (GeO 2 ) islands on the yttrium oxide (Y 2 O 3 ) layer forming a trench having a long axis between each adjacent pair of the plurality of the germanium oxide (GeO 2 ) islands; 
 a monolayer in the trench, wherein the monolayer is formed by a plurality of functionalized bifunctional compounds having a first reactive moiety and a diazonium moiety, wherein the first reactive moiety is selectively chemically adsorbed onto exposed portions of the yttrium oxide (Y 2 O 3 ) layer; 
 a plurality of carbon nanotubes, wherein the diazonitum moiety of each of the plurality of functionalized bifunctional compounds is chemically bonded to one of the plurality of carbon nanotubes, and the plurality of carbon nanotubes are free of compounds other than the functionalized bifunctional compound, wherein the plurality of carbon nanotubes have a length greater than a width of the trench, so the bound carbon nanotubes are aligned with the long axis of the trench; 
 wherein the germanium oxide (GeO 2 ) islands have a thickness in a range of about 1 nm to about 100 nm, and a thickness of the yttrium oxide (Y 2 O 3 ) layer is also in a range of about 1 nm to about 100 nm; 
 wherein the trench formed by the germanium oxide (GeO 2 ) islands and the yttrium oxide (Y 2 O 3 ) layer has a width in a range of about 30 nm to about 500 nm, a length in a range of about 500 nm to about 1500 nm and a depth equal to the thickness of the germanium oxide (GeO 2 ) islands; 
 wherein the carbon nanotubes have a thickness in a range of 1 nm to about 5 nm and a length in a range of about 300 om to about 600 nm. 
 
     
     
       2. The carbon nanotube based device of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of carbon nanotubes are selected from the group consisting of single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs), double-walled carbon nanotubes (DWNTs), and multi-walled nanotubes (MWNTs). 
     
     
       3. The carbon nanotube based device of  claim 2 , wherein the plurality of carbon nanotubes are not chemically functionalized before being chemically bonded to the second reactive moiety of the functionalized bifunctional compound.